PMA Closes on Western Slope Project

Hiking on Nickolson Parcel
High on newly acquired Nicholson parcel

March 22, 2018 was a good day for PMA!  After over two years of planning, fund-raising, and more than one bump on the way, PMA closed on two properties, totaling 161 acres, on the western side of Putney Mountain and Windmill Ridge. We then placed a conservation easement on it with the Vermont Land Trust and the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board.  The land is protected from development, forever.  Public access to our West Cliff Trail which crosses the property as part of a 38 mile trail system is ensured, and important wildlife habitat and movement corridor is preserved.

 

 

Hiking Putney Mountain
Enjoying a hike on our newly conserved land, from left: Nancy Everhart, of Vermont Housing & Conservation Board; Dan Healey, Geordie Heller, and Pat Shields from Putney Mountain Association, and Allaire Diamond from Vermont Land Trust.

The land is steep and entirely forested.  Streams drain from the slopes into Grassy Brook in Brookline. A sizable vernal pool is used by wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and other amphibians to reproduce.  This summer we will be flagging a new trail which, when built over the next two years, will provide shorter and easier access to the summit from the Brookline side.

This project was made possible by our many generous PMA members and supporters who once again rallied to the cause, and by critical grants from the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, Davis Conservation Fund, William Wharton Trust, and Open Space Institute’s Resilient Landscape Initiative, which is made possible with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.  We thank you all.  We are especially grateful to the Vermont Land Trust who worked with us helping to raise the funds to purchase and conserve this land.